IT_Architect said:
BTW, there is a TON of IPV6 out there, just not in the hosting area and not as a percentage.
It doesn't come knocking, it's already here, content providers are the early adopters here, hosters, news servers, streaming, etc.
Umm...that's what I said, except today IPV6 has more to do with toasters than hosters.
The vast majority of IPV6 usage today is for devices. There are literally thousands of devices that military, security organizations, and businesses use that have their own IP. Many are disposable devices with an unknown lifespan. They realized early on IPV4 was not an option. Even if IPV4 were a option, IPV6 has advantages over IPV4 to where they wouldn't have considered it if given the choice. The high-end routing equipment on the internet that is being replaced today already had IPV6 support. That's how these organizations communicate with their devices. Today, whether the hosting provider needs IPV6 or not may have more to do with whether or not he wants to refuse paying customers that require it.
As mentioned, the new https protocols, NAT, VPN, the abandonment of IPV4 by aforesaid organizations, and the requirement that you be charged for additional IPs have been major contributors to making IPV4 viable for longer than predicted.
The "Y2K disaster" was based on the predictions of Deloitte & Touche, whose main business was computer consulting services. They took a bow for preventing it, but the truth is that countries and organizations that could not afford to do anything about it, suffered very few consequences. So today we are going to trust Cisco's prediction about IPV4?
You will know IPV4's exhaustion is near when:
- Your hosting source is talking about IPV6 addresses.
- Your hosting source emails you they are going to give you a new block of IPs so that they can consolidate your blocks.
- Your hosting source gives you IPV6 addresses by default, and you need to buy IPV4s.
- Your hosting source cannot get IPV4 addresses until he upgrades his equipment to IPV6.
- An IPV4 address costs you as much in money and trouble as a Verisign EV cert.
The high-end routers that are being thrown away today already had IPV6 support. Windows had it standard since XP. You can get an update from Microsoft for Windows 2000 and NT. Even Windows 3.x through Millenium have it built into their Trumpet Winsock. That doesn't leave much area in the middle that needs to be updated. "Necessity is the mother of invention" The only thing in the way of widespread adaptation of IPV6 is necessity. But there is still no reason to build a time bomb into a server stack that might run for 5 years. I have no doubt DA will do what is necessary to allow access the their control panel when the mother of invention shows up.
